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Living with a trach/vent

I'm venturing to finally move out of this nursing home and get a place of my own. I have a t-tube trach and need suctioning usually at night and in the mornings. Do aides do this? Do I need a full time nurse? Any other quads out there that deal with this? What about traveling? Or equipment maintenance?

An agency will rarely allow an aide to be assigned to someone who needs suctioning. It nearly always requires an RN or LVN. On the other hand, if you choose to hire private PCAs instead of dealing with an agency, you can hire anyone you want...they don't even have to be a CNA or HHA, and they can do this care and any other care you require.

Agencies often don't allow aides to be assigned to bowel care, tube feeding, or catheterization care either, so if you need any of this, you would be much better off hiring and training your own private PCAs.

My husband has a trach and uses a vent mainly at night. He needs suctioning several times a day and we also use a cough assist.
No agency would accept him, but we have found and trained our own people that were willing to learn his care.
I am usually home because on the program he is on a family member must be present if there is not an RN.
This can vary by the state.
Good luck!

Here in New York City we have a program called Concepts of Independence (a consumer-directed personal assistant program) that will allow you to choose and train your own caregivers. Since care is at your discretion and you do the training yourself, you aren't required to have a nurse.

You may encounter resistance from doctors and CASA; few of them have ever heard of such a thing. You can request brochures and literature from Concepts to spread around and get them used to the idea. Also, have you looked into inexsufflation? Does it work for you? It's noninvasive, so might make it easier to get approval for things and in terms of training people.

Please let me know if you have any questions, I love helping people get free of nursing homes

You may encounter resistance from doctors and CASA; few of them have ever heard of such a thing. You can request brochures and literature from Concepts to spread around and get them used to the idea. Also, have you looked into inexsufflation? Does it work for you? It's noninvasive, so might make it easier to get approval for things and in terms of training people.

Please let me know if you have any questions, I love helping people get free of nursing homes

Never heard of inexsufflation. I keep asking my case manager to fill me in on how homecare is going to work with me (I have workers comp) and she hasn't been forthcoming with any information. I left a message with Concepts but haven't heard back. Will call again on monday.